Welfare regime change – or lack of change – in unemployment compensation

Drawing on theoretical accounts of institutional change, this study explored the politics of welfare regime transformation in regard to Turkey's unemployment compensation system. By using the institutionalist approach, the study shows that the process of welfare regime change was one of “institutional layering” of unemployment insurance (UI) over severance pay. Also, the study demonstrates that the economic bureaucracy played a key role in pushing the establishment of UI (state‐centric approach) in contrast to the class‐based organizations that focused their struggles on the severance pay scheme (power‐resource perspective). However, the economic bureaucracy preferred a rudimentary UI design, which prevented UI from undermining the vested interests behind the severance pay scheme. Furthermore, subsequent attempts at the reformation of the severance pay scheme were not successful because the social welfare bureaucracy lacked the capacity to develop a policy alternative to resolve the stalemate between the societal actors. Lastly, the study used the successful severance pay reform experiences of South Korea and Austria to locate the Turkish case within a broader comparative framework.     

Redefining Welfare: Australian Social Policy and Practice

The present paper outlines and analyzes Australia's welfare reform policies as they have been implemented over the past decade. While there have been numerous social policy initiatives over this period, welfare reform provides an interesting site for analysis and review. This suite of policies and programs is of particular importance from several standpoints. First, its target groups – those needing income security assistance, including the unemployed, people with disabilities, and single parents – are historically and traditionally of concern to social work and social welfare. Second, welfare reform policies have had significant impact on social welfare agencies, and the social workers and welfare workers employed in them. Finally, welfare reform has had a wider impact on inequality in Australia and our attitudes to those in need. This paper first provides a brief overview of the context of Australian social policy and welfare, its origins and current situation. It then outlines the key operational elements of welfare reform and how it has been implemented. The third section of the paper offers a critical analysis of these policies and programs and finally poses some questions and issues requiring further discussion and research.     

Work or welfare – a dilemma in the declining Swedish welfare state

The number of welfare recipients among people of working age increased from 1985 to 1992 in Sweden. Unexpectedly, this increase also took place under the economic boom during the late 1980s, characterized by very low unemployment. This is shown in a study of a 10% representative sample of the Swedish population. Not only has the number of welfare recipients increased, there has been a parallel increase in the relative number of people who are gainfully employed. This trend prevails until 1991, when the employment rates start going down. Until then, the development is characterized by growing polarization (bifurcation) into those who depend on work for their subsistence and those who depend on transfer payments from the welfare system. The development of welfare dependence has been different for men and women. The reasons for this development are discussed. Data about the increasing cost of social security are also presented, showing that the welfare system has not been in any immediate economic crisis from 1985 to 1993.     

Black‐market Medicine and Public Opinion Towards the Welfare State: Evidence from Israel

Based on a survey and interviews, this article presents and analyses Israeli public opinion toward black‐market medicine (BMM) and the welfare state. In addition to providing quantitative and qualitative evidence of the existence of under‐the‐table payments in Israel, we suggest various insights into this phenomenon. While most citizens admit that they would consider making under‐the‐table payments in order to receive preferential medical treatment, when the questions mention words such as ‘illegal’ or ‘bribe’, respondents tend to be less tolerant of such activities. We find that, first, there is a basic willingness among Israeli citizens to use BMM. Second, despite this predilection, Israeli citizens are reluctant to articulate their willingness to engage in such illegal activities. This reluctance implies the existence of a moral barrier among the population as far as identifying themselves with illegal behaviour is concerned. We may infer the existence of a gap between declared attitudes and behaviour. Third, the fact that people's willingness to engage in BMM is greater than their willingness to adopt black‐market strategies in other areas signifies the special nature of health care. Finally, by connecting the phenomenon of BMM to public opinion regarding the welfare state, we point to a possible gap between normative attitudes and preferences produced by structural conditions.     

Contradictory Logics in Asset‐building Discourse: Habits,Identities and Discipline

Asset‐building as an anti‐poverty policy emphasizes helping the poor to save and accumulate wealth so as to promote future financial well‐being. This article focuses on how asset‐building discourse is practiced at the frontlines and its implications for how workers come to address issues of poverty. Drawing on qualitative data from a case study of a matched savings programme in the USA, the study finds that asset‐building discourse as enacted by workers is fundamentally contradictory: it promotes the idea that the poor can acquire financial literacy, but simultaneously works to discipline the poor to thoughtlessly save out of habit. More priority is placed on inculcating the habit of saving rather than teaching economically rational decision‐making. These findings indicate that asset‐building is consistent with a neo‐liberal outlook that focuses on disciplining the poor to be market compliant irrespective of whether their participation in market‐based activities effectively addresses the challenges of living in poverty.     

Social Citizenship Rights and the Welfare Circle Dilemma: Attitudinal Findings of Two Chinese Societies

This paper places social citizenship momentum into the context of squaring the welfare circle for examination. Citizenship is a powerful world-level organizing principle especially by the minority groups for their claim of equal treatment. The squaring of welfare circle refers to the need of the governments to constrain their budgets but also meet the rising demands from and needs of their people. This comparative study looks at the attitudinal findings of two Chinese societies of Hong Kong and Taiwan to see whether or not the cultural factor can mitigate the momentum of social citizenship rights and the demand side of the welfare circle. Implications for social policy are also discussed.     

Demographic and Welfare State Predictors of Out-of-Pocket Health Expenditures: A Path Analytic Model

ABSTRACT

Out-of-pocket (OOP) payments are principal components of financing healthcare and have a significant effect on poverty in numerous developing countries. The present study seeks to ascertain the relation among demographic, welfare state, and OOP health expenditure indicators using a path analysis. National representative household budget data from the Turkish Statistical Institute for 2015 were used. To test the goodness of fit of the model, multiple fit indices were utilized. The model fit for redefined path analytic model data was good (X²/df = 70.20/9 = 7.8; RMSEA = 0.032; GFI = 1.00; AGFI = 0.99; CFI = 0.99). The results of the analysis revealed that demographic and welfare indicators are causally related to OOP health expenditures, and income was a mediating factor for this interrelationship. Designing of socially inclusive policies on the basis of the values of equity is essential to combat poverty due to OOP health expenditures in developing countries.     

State socialism and the welfare state: a critique of two conventional paradigms

The post–war development of industrialised nations has been led by the idea of a welfare state. On the other hand, research on current and former communist states is still dominated by an age–old notion of 'state socialism'. This article provides a critical assessment of the two conventional paradigms by reviewing their implications within the historical and international contexts. By tracing its ideological roots and contrasting with the changing reality, it is argued that state socialism was misused in representing Marxist guidelines and is outdated in characterising the reforming socialist societies. By emphasising the experience of developing nations the article further challenges the welfare state as the paradigm for studying the general direction of a modern society. Attention is drawn to the study of a general public policy, and the economic state model is revisited for conceptualising the experience of a non–welfare state nation such as China.     

The Effects of Depressive Symptoms on Work Activities and Welfare Exit of Welfare Recipients in Korea1

The purpose of this research is to examine the link between depressive symptoms of welfare recipients and their work activity and welfare exit using a secondary dataset, entitled the Korean Welfare Panel Study. In 2000, the National Basic Livelihood Security System (NBLSS) was introduced to (i) ensure a basic standard of living for households in poverty, and (ii) promote work activity and welfare exit of the recipients. A considerable body of literature has reported that the policy outcome of the NBLSS is not a success. However, the reason for the low success rate is unclear. In contrast to studies in the USA, few studies in Korea investigated the effect of depression on welfare‐to‐work transitions. To bridge the gap in the literature, we examine the association between depression, work activity, and welfare exit using a logistic regression analytic method. The analytic results show that the level of depression (total score on the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale) was negatively associated with welfare recipients’ work activity and welfare exit, suggesting that depressive symptoms may be a significant barrier to promoting economic self‐sufficiency. Implications of the study findings are further discussed.     

Social Work, Asset-based Welfare and the Child Trust Fund

Asset-based welfare represents a new departure in British incomemaintenance policy and the Child Trust Fund is its most importantcontemporary example. This Research Note explores the claimsmade for asset-based welfare in general and for the Child TrustFund in particular. It sets out the results of an investigationinto the views of young people into potential uses which individualsmight make of the Fund. It then suggests a series of reasonswhy social workers ought to take a particular interest in thedevelopment of asset-based welfare policies and the benefitswhich might flow from them.     

Welfare and Democratization – Comparing Croatia,Serbia and Macedonia

The article discusses the main determinants of welfare transformation after the regime change from communism towards democracy. The states of the former Yugoslavia, notwithstanding a common welfare state structure, albeit at different quality levels, after departing communism developed diverse trajectories. In response to the wars, war‐related consequences and growing economic pressures, the national political elites in Yugoslav successor states initially extended welfare provisions and thus thwarted popular mobilization. The international actors' agenda gained ground in a setting characterized by nationalistic resentments, popular disorientation and elite capture. What the analyzed country cases suggest is that democratization has contributed to making reforms more responsive to public concerns. On the other hand, ‘defective’ systems continue to impede economic development and compromise the welfare state's redistributive role.     

Empirical Analysis of Fiscal Soundness and Public Social Expenditure: A Lesson for the Future Direction of the Korean Welfare State

The aim of this paper is to investigate the relations between fiscal soundness and public social expenditure in advanced welfare states so as to reconsider the conventional wisdom that welfare expenditure aggravates national finances. Through this, I propose the clues of building the sustainable Korean welfare state. I focus on the interdependent relationship between fiscal soundness and public social expenditure based on fiscal sociology. Considering this interaction, I form two sets of simultaneous equations models and employ a special statistical method, three‐stage least squares (3SLS). The results regarding the causal relationship between fiscal soundness and public social spending indicate that, if public welfare spending is increased, fiscal health is damaged. However, as many comparative social policy researchers have pointed out, outcomes of welfare states differ from country to country according to the composition of public welfare spending. Specifically, some welfare states with priority given to social services such as vocational training or childcare services have maintained the stability of public finance. By extension, we can say that public social expenditures have a positive influence on fiscal soundness based on the composition of social expenditures. Finally, it is possible to create financially sustainable welfare states.     

Governance and Participation in Local Welfare: The Case of the Italian Piani di Zona

This article analyses four cases of governance in Italian local welfare systems. Following Law 328/2000, the design and management of the social services system in Italy involve different public responsibility levels, mainly regional and municipal. In order to manage social policies, Italian municipalities have to join in new inter‐municipal groupings called ‘Piani di Zona’ (Area Plans). Moreover, the law provides for engaging in these Plans even local third‐sector organizations and citizens. The article attempts to highlight the implications of this complex system that is leading local authorities to open new governance arenas. We hereby present the results of a research project on two Piani di Zona in the Region of Lombardy (Northern Italy) and on two in the Region of Campania (Southern Italy), carried out by means of institutional analysis. We particularly focus on the dynamics of participation triggered by the Piani di Zona. Our hypothesis is that the role of public administration is a fundamental variable to understand the different ways of participating. In this sense, we discuss the dynamics of local governance by relaying them to four main questions: who participates in what, where and how?     

Explaining Korean Welfare State Development with New Empirical Data and Methods

Selecting Korea as one of the conceptually classified East Asian welfare states, this paper aims to empirically investigate the determinants of Korean welfare state development. Linking the research question with the lively discussion on welfare state in Korea that is taking place domestically, this paper also aims to examine whether the development of the Korean welfare state has been influenced by politics of the left or by industrialization with functionalistic perspectives. We conduct an analysis first by regression analysis and then fuzzy‐set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to examine the conditions of such development. A Korean Welfare State Dataset (KWSD) has been newly included in the Comparative Welfare State Dataset (CWSD) and we used this new dataset for our empirical analysis. Our empirical findings suggest that, at least up to the current point, factors other than economic development or industrialization are not robust enough to make a claim of a take‐off of the Korean welfare state from its developmental stage. However, we also notice the influence of the left government and suggest that it is legitimate to expect an innovative change in the path of the Korean welfare state once the power resource theory is applicable.     

Accounting for Ethical Difficulties in Social Welfare Work: Issues, Problems and Dilemmas

This paper is a preliminary exploration of social welfare practitioners’accounts of ‘ethically difficult situations’. Itdescribes variations in the ethical vocabulary and form of theseaccounts. Analysis of practitioners’ own accounts (asopposed to ‘textbook’ cases) draws attention tothe ways they construct events, actions and qualities of characteras ethically significant and highlights the qualitative distinctivenessof ethical dilemmas, where seemingly irresolvable choices leavea residue of moral loss, regret or guilt.     

Work, welfare and the attack on the welfare state: the mixing of politics and policy

This article considers the current ideological and political attack against the floor of benefits for poor families in the United States. It examines a number of punitive approaches to the treatment of families on welfare that were developed in the United States in the late 1980s and the 1990s and contends that such policies will not effectively deter the dysfunctional behavior of some of the poor. Rather these policy developments reflect an attack on current national policies of developing an income maintenance floor that seeks to economically sustain poor families, albeit often inadequately. The article contends that current welfare proposals by conservatives and social liberals are not satisfactory for dealing with the problems of the welfare poor and offers suggestions for dealing with these deficits. It also notes that criticisms of welfare state protection for the poor raised in the United States are much more categorical than those raised in Sweden.     

Welfare reform in the United Kingdom 2010–16: Expectations,outcomes, and local impacts

Welfare reform has been central to UK government policy since 2010. This article compares initial expectations with key outcomes by 2016. The article shows that although the financial savings to the Treasury have been large, they have been rather less than the government first anticipated, mainly because the reduction in spending on incapacity‐related benefits has proved far smaller than expected. The financial losses have also been spread highly unevenly across the country, and the evidence from a pilot study in Scotland suggests that the reforms have had little impact on levels of worklessness. The article concludes that whilst forecasting the financial savings from welfare reform is an inherently uncertain activity, the United Kingdom's reforms should be understood first and foremost as about reducing public spending in the poorest places.     

Globalization, the Welfare State and Young People Leaving State Out-of-Home Care

Some theories of globalization argue that it is producing a uniform reduction in social spending, while others claim that global influences are mediated by specific national factors. This article argues that the emergence of support for young people leaving state out-of-home care in almost all developed countries provides further evidence for the mediation thesis. Using Australia as a case study, attention is drawn to the commonality of poor outcomes for many care leavers, the different legislative and policy responses to these needs in a range of welfare states, and the role played by local and global researchers and policy advocates in bringing these needs to public and political attention.     

Welfare attitudes and social class: the case of Hong Kong in comparative perspective

Based on a survey of Hong Kong residents, this article explores the attitudes towards the welfare state and whether or not there are significant differences between different social classes with regard to their approval of the welfare state. The findings were then compared with those for Sweden and the USA. The study shows that Hong Kong residents strongly approve of the welfare state. The strength of their support is similar to that in Sweden and is far stronger than in the USA. In Hong Kong, the influence of social class on attitudes towards the welfare state is negligible. In some cases, the privileged classes expressed greater approval for the welfare state than the underprivileged classes. This is in striking contrast to the experiences in Sweden and the USA where the underprivileged classes are more supportive of the welfare state than are the privileged classes.     

From ‘Rights to Action’: practitioners' perceptions of the needs of children experiencing domestic violence

Not only has research over the past decade documented the emotional and behavioural consequences for children who witness domestic violence, but a number of studies have used children as participants thus, giving them an opportunity to describe their experiences in their own words. In policy terms, there has been a growing emphasis on children's rights and the importance and understanding of children's perspectives on their own lives. Consequently, children can no longer be perceived as forgotten victims where domestic violence is concerned. This paper explores practitioners' awareness of the needs of children and young people living with, and fleeing from, domestic violence. The research, conducted in a rural area in Wales, reveals that although the views of practitioners reflect the concerns reported by young people in other studies, there can be barriers to meeting these needs. While policy prescribes engaging with children, at the institutional level, operational priorities and increasing administrative demands can actually reduce opportunities for working directly with children. These demands may hamper the development of multi‐agency practice.